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Hospitals in South Carolina are allowed to siphon off millions of dollars a year from their poorest patients' tax refunds, to recoup those patients' medical debt, according to a a wild story by the Post and Courier.

How it works: The state Department of Revenue does the work, collecting a cut for themselves, resulting in health organizations taking at least $92.9 million via more than 172,000 seizures in 2017. A lobbying group is also involved, and also takes a chunk of money for itself, resulting in another fee tacked onto patients' debt.

The bottom line: Hospitals — including private ones — in South Carolina use the Department of Revenue as their debt collector, a practice replicated only in one other state.

Nearly a third of the state's residents under 65 have unpaid medical bills.

But unlike all but three other states, South Carolina prohibits hospitals from getting a court order to force employers to give them workers' wages as a way of settling medical debts.

Protesters gather north of Lafayette Square near the White House during a demonstration against racism and police brutality, in Washington, D.C. on Saturday evening. Photo: Jose Luis Magana/AFP via Getty Images

Tens of thousands of demonstrators have been rallying in cities across the U.S. and around the world to protest the killing of George Floyd. Huge crowds assembled in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Chicago for full-day events on Saturday.